System and method for adjusting and monitoring the pressures of printing rollers in a flexographic printing machine with central drum

ABSTRACT

A system for adjusting and monitoring the pressures of the printing rollers of a flexographic printing machine, which comprises at least one reader which is adapted to be placed at the printing rollers of the printing machine. The reader is adapted to detect the contrast of the print on the printing material wrapped around the central drum of the printing machine and is connected to a processing unit which is adapted to determine and control, as a function of the contrast detected by the reader, the position of the printing rollers with respect to the central drum in order to achieve the desired print.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a system and a method for monitoringthe pressures of the printing rollers in a flexographic printingmachine. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and amethod for monitoring the pressures of the printing rollers in aflexographic printing machine upon starting a new job.

BACKGROUND ART

As is known, flexographic printing machines with central drums have aplurality of printing plate rollers and anilox rollers arranged around acentral drum; the printing plate rollers and anilox rollers transfer theink onto the material to be printed depending on the printing pressures,i.e., depending on the pressure applied by each printing plate rolleragainst the central drum and by each anilox roller against therespective printing plate. The pressure depends on the relative positionof the printing plate with respect to the central drum and on therelative position of the anilox with respect to the printing plate.

Job changing, which occurs whenever the elements that cooperate toperform the printing process change, which elements in flexographicprinting are the printing plate, the printing plate double adhesive, theprinting plate sleeve, the anilox, the material to be printed and theinks, as well as the variation in the environmental conditions, such astemperature and humidity, always requires, for obtaining the desiredprint, the identification of the correct printing pressures, i.e., ofthe correct relative positions between the printing plate and the drumand between the anilox and the printing plate with respect to thosecalculated by the machine on the basis of the theoretical dimensions ofthe printing elements.

Identification of the correct pressures entails the production ofproduct rejects and a waste of time and depends greatly on the skill andexperience of the printer.

Today there are already automatic systems that aid or replace theprinter in identifying and applying the correct printing pressures atthe beginning of the printing process after job changing.

These systems can be divided substantially into two types: systems withprint feedback; and offline systems without print feedback.

The former substantially measure printed markings (the markings arerepresentative marks of the print) or the entire print with a videocamera and then correct the printing pressures (see for example EP1249346 and EP 1666252).

The latter, substantially before printing, measure the surfacedimensions of the printing plate roller with systems which are externalto the machine, store the measurement, then mount the printing plateroller on the machine and position it in contact with the central drumaccording to the stored data (see for example US 2008/0141886 A1).

However, these systems have some problems.

First of all, all systems with print feedback use a video camera that iscapable of measuring and processing the entire printed image or morefrequently specific markings that are representative of the printedimage; the presence of these markings requires new printing plates anddoes not allow the use of old ones; moreover, each system uses differentmarkings. The markings are located on the sides of the material and foran equal size of the printed image they require wider material andtherefore a waste of material.

Furthermore, all “online” systems with print feedback control themovement of the printing plate rollers and of the anilox rollers so asto vary the printing pressures, wait for the print to be read by thevideo camera, measure the effect of the motion of the printing platerollers and anilox rollers on the print and resume this process untilthe pressures are found to be correct; this operation takes a long timeand produces considerable waste, which increases as the distance of thevideo cameras from the printing of the colors increases, as generallyoccurs due to space occupation problems.

All “online” systems with print feedback operate by comparing the printor the printed markings with a reference image that is representative ofthe print that one wishes to obtain in order to determine the correctprinting pressures; the printer must therefore load this reference imageinto the system for example by means of a file.

All offline systems without print feedback measure only the dimensionsof the printing plate rollers and anilox rollers when they are notmounted on the machine; they do not measure the other elements that areresponsible inside the machine for the printing pressures, i.e., theprinting material, the inks, the tolerances and the mechanical plays;these and the relationships among them change after a change of job andcan change over time with an effect on printing pressures.

A further problem is that all offline systems without print feedback donot measure the print, are systems without feedback and therefore lessprecise and often require the intervention of the printer, who mustretouch the printing pressures in order to obtain the desired print.

Last but not least, all these systems are complicated and expensive,produce a considerable waste of product, require time for setting up thenew job for printing and almost always require the intervention of theprinter, who has to retouch the printing pressures in order to obtainthe desired print.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The aim of the present invention is to provide a system and a method forprocessing and monitoring printing pressures for a flexographic printingmachine which solves the problems described above, i.e., a system and amethod that measure directly the entire print and work with printingplates without markings and therefore do not require new printingplates.

Within this aim, an object of the invention is to provide a system and amethod that measure the print without using a video camera.

Another object of the invention is to provide a system and a method thatdo not require the reference image for the printed image.

Another object of the invention is to provide a system and a method thatmake it possible to reduce the waste of product and the time requiredfor automatic setup of the printing pressures after a change of job.

Another object of the invention is to provide a system and a methodwhich are completely automatic and which, after completion of themethod, do not require the intervention of the printer to retouch theprinting pressures in order to obtain the desired print.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a system and amethod which are simpler, more reliable and cheaper than currently usedsystems.

This aim, as well as these and other objects that will become moreapparent hereinafter, are achieved by a system for adjusting andmonitoring the pressures of printing rollers of a flexographic printingmachine, characterized in that it comprises at least one reader which isadapted to be placed at the printing rollers of the printing machine,said reader being adapted to detect the contrast of the print on theprinting material wrapped around the central drum of the printingmachine, said reader being connected to a processing unit which isadapted to determine and control, as a function of the contrast detectedby said reader, the position of the printing rollers with respect tosaid central drum in order to obtain the desired print.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become moreapparent from the description of a preferred but not exclusiveembodiment of the system and of the method according to the invention,illustrated by way of non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings,wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a flexographic printing machine withcentral drum to which the system according to the invention is applied;

FIGS. 2-3, 4-5 and 6-7 are views of three operating steps for thepositioning of the printing rollers with respect to the central drum;

FIG. 8 is a chart which shows the contrast of the color in relation tothe position of the printing roller.

WAYS OF CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

With reference to the figures, a system according to the invention isapplied to a printing machine and an assembly is generally designated bythe reference numeral 1. In particular, the reference numeral 2designates a central drum of the printing machine, whereas the referencenumerals 3 and 4 designate respectively pairs of printing rollers andanilox rollers which are arranged around the central drum 2 andconveniently can move on pairs of guides 5 and 6 so as to cause theapproach and/or spacing of the pairs of printing plate rollers 3 andanilox rollers 4 with respect to the central drum 2 of the flexographicprinting machine.

Conventionally, the printing machine has an operator side, on which theprinter works, and a transmission side, which is opposite to theoperator side and on which the elements for transmission of the motionto the rollers of the machine are provided.

The system described above further comprises at least one reader 7,which is adapted to detect the contrast of the print on a printingmaterial 8, which depends on the contact pressure that the printingplate roller 3 exerts on the printed material 8 wrapped around thecentral drum 2 and on the contact pressure that the anilox roller 4exerts on the printing plate roller 3.

In particular, the reader 7 reads the entire print and measures thecontrast of the print of the material 8 with respect to the materialwithout print.

More precisely, the reader 7 is constituted by a scanning head whosesize is equal to the width of the printing material 8 and whichcomprises internally a plurality of independent modules composed of alinear sensor, an acquisition lens, a lighting portion, an electroniccontrol system. The signal in output provided by the reader 7 is anintegration of the acquisition area of such reader.

The reader 7 is connected to a processing and control unit 10, which isadapted to control motors 11 for the positioning of the printing platerollers 3 and anilox rollers 4 with respect to the central drum 2.

The reader 7 is synchronized with the printing performed by the printingrollers by means of a digital signal generated by a virtual printingplate 12.

The virtual printing plate 12 is a motor which rotates so as to besynchronized with the printing plate rollers and is provided with anencoder which generates a digital signal at each turn, which thusrepresents the turn of the printing plate rollers.

Finally, a control station 13 is used by the printer to control theoperation of the system according to the invention.

The processing and control unit 10 provides for a processing section 14and a control section 15.

The method for controlling the printing pressures according to theinvention comprises the following steps:

Step 1

From the control station 13, the printer enters the data of the new job,such as for example the printing format, the type of material, theprinting stations involved, the color printed by each station, and soforth.

Step 2 (FIGS. 2 and 3)

The printer enables the process for controlling the printing pressuresand commands the running of the printing machine. The printing machineaccelerates to the speed at which the process for monitoring printingpressures occurs. The drum printing roller 2, the printing plate roller3 and the anilox roller 4 are not in contact and do not print. Thereader 7 performs self-calibration and measures the contrast of thematerial 8 without print.

Step 3 (FIGS. 6 and 7)

The control section 15 commands the printing rollers of the firststation, among the ones that have been inserted, to make mutual contactin order to print; i.e., it commands the printing plate roller 3 to makecontact with the material wrapped around the drum 2 and the aniloxroller 4 to make contact with the printing plate roller 3, according toa sequence of movements that are defined by a series of elevationscalculated according to the dimensions of the rollers and of theprinting systems.

The sequence first moves the anilox roller 4 so as to make contact withthe printing plate roller 3 and ink it, then moves stepwise, oraccording to preset steps, the printing plate roller 3 from the positionfor not printing on the material (condition of minimum contrast) to theposition of maximum printing pressure (condition of maximum contrast),until by an increase in printing pressure the contrast measured by thereader 7 no longer varies appreciably.

During the sequence, the reader 7 reads and measures the contrast of thematerial 8, after each movement performed by the printing plate roller 3in order to move from the non-printing position to the position ofmaximum printing pressure. The movement of the printing plate roller 3and the reading process by the reader 7 are synchronized by the virtualprinting plate 12, for example every three turns of the virtual printingplate 12; the reading of the first turn is rejected, since in the firstturn there is the transition from printing determined by the oldposition to printing determined by the new position; the reading of thesecond turn is rejected because in the second turn the new printstabilizes, and the reading of the third turn is considered valid.

During the sequence, the processing section 14 stores, for each movementof the printing plate roller 3, the position thereof and the contrastmeasured by the reader 7; the stored data can be represented as pointsof a Cartesian plane, where the X axis is the position of the printingplate roller 3 and the Y axis is the value of the contrast measured bythe reader 7 (see the chart of FIG. 8).

Considering the chart of FIG. 8, the processing unit takes as areference two points: the zero point, which is defined by the positionof the printing roller and by the contrast measured by the reader 7,when no printing occurs; and the master point, which is defined by theposition of the printing roller and by the contrast measured by thereader 7, when maximum printing pressure is applied.

In particular, the reader 7 reads every millimeter of the printedmaterial, along its entire width, and for each millimeter of printedmaterial it sends to the processing section 14 a value that isrepresentative of the ink cover of the print on the operator side of themachine and a value that is representative of the ink cover of the printon the transmission side of the machine.

The processing section 14 stores the values of the ink cover for eachmillimeter of print, also known as “line cover”, both for the operatorside and for the transmission side.

Each printing station involved in printing performs this step, one at atime.

Step 4 (FIGS. 4 and 5)

After this step, which is constituted by the positioning of the printingrollers and by the measurement of the contrast of the print as thepositions in contact vary and therefore as the printing pressures of therollers vary, the processing section 14 analyzes and processes theacquired data, i.e., the zero point, the master point and theintermediate points defined by position and contrast, and calculatesautomatically the position and therefore the printing pressure of theprinting plate roller 3 with respect to the central drum 2 in order toobtain the the desired print.

For each side of the print, the system takes as references the linecover of the master point of the operator side and the line cover of themaster point on the transmission side.

The system according to the invention calculates the position of theprinting plate roller 3 with respect to the central drum 2 for thetransmission side and for the operator side in order to achieve optimumprinting as the position that has the maximum possible pressurereduction with respect to that of the master point without howevercausing a significant reduction in cover on any of the lines detected atthe master point.

As an alternative, it is possible to start from the zero point anddetect the point when the degree of cover no longer increases.

Step 5

The control section 15 orders the printing plate roller 3 to move to thepositions calculated by the processing section 14 in order to achievethe desired print.

The same method described above can also be performed to determine thecorrect printing pressures between the anilox roller 4 and the printingplate roller 3, by moving first the printing plate roller 3 to makecontact with the material and then moving stepwise the anilox roller 4from the position in which no contact occurs with the printing plateroller (condition of minimum contrast) to the position of maximumcontact pressure (maximum contrast condition), until due to an increaseof the printing pressure the contrast measured by the reader 7 no longervaries appreciably.

The method for controlling printing pressures according to the inventiontherefore provides for analysis and processing of the data andcalculation of the new positions only once, at the end of step 3, andnot with each new positioning, as occurs in the background art.

The advantage is a process which is simpler and faster and produces lessprinting waste.

For this purpose also, the reader 7 is arranged directly behind theprint in output from the central drum 2 and before the drying oven.

Also for this purpose, it is convenient for the method for controllingprinting pressures according to the invention and in particular thesequence of predefined movements of the printing rollers to begin fromthe point where the printing plate roller 3 skims the printing material8 wrapped around the central drum 2 and the anilox roller 4 skims theprinting plate roller 4; this point is known as “kiss point”.

In practice it has been found that the system and the method accordingto the invention fully achieve the intended aim and objects.

The system and method thus conceived are susceptible of numerousmodifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of theappended claims; all the details may further be replaced with othertechnically equivalent elements.

In practice, the materials used, as well as the contingent shapes anddimensions, may be any according to requirements and to the state of theart.

The disclosures in Italian Patent Application No. VR2010A000252 fromwhich this application claims priority are incorporated herein byreference.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A system for adjusting and monitoringpressures of printing rollers of a flexographic printing machine,comprising a central drum; anilox rollers arranged around the centraldrum; at least one reader, placed at the printing rollers of theflexographic printing machine, to detect the contrast of print onprinting material wrapped around the central drum of the flexographicprinting machine, the at least one reader constituted by a scanning headwhose size is equal to the width of the printing material for readingthe entire printing width and for measuring an amount of print on theprinting material with respect to its background, the amountcorresponding to the contrast; and a processing and control unitconnected to the at least one reader to determine and control, as afunction of the contrast detected by the at least one reader, a positionof the printing rollers with respect to the central drum in order toachieve a desired print; and wherein the processing and control unitcomprises a control section and a processing section to: commandperformance of a sequence of stepwise movements of a printing rollerwith respect to the central drum or optionally of an anilox roller withrespect to the printing roller, in order to make contact in printing atdifferent printing pressures; store for each movement of the printingroller data acquired regarding its position and the contrast measured bythe at least one reader; and analyze and elaborate the acquired data andautomatically calculate, the position and therefore the printingpressure of the printing roller with respect to the central drum inorder to achieve the desired print.
 2. The system according to claim 1,wherein the processing and control unit controls the movement of one ofthe printing rollers with respect to the central drum and the movementof another one of the printing rollers.
 3. A method for controllingprinting pressures for a flexographic printing machine having printingrollers by means of a system, the system comprising: a central drum;anilox rollers arranged around the central drum; at least one reader,placed at the printing rollers of the flexographic printing machine, todetect the contrast of print on printing material wrapped around thecentral drum of the flexographic printing machine, the at least onereader constituted by a scanning head whose size is equal to the widthof the printing material for reading the entire printing width and formeasuring an amount of print on the printing material with respect toits background, the amount corresponding to the contrast; and aprocessing and control unit connected to the at least one reader todetermine and control, as a function of the contrast detected by the atleast one reader, a position of the printing rollers with respect to thecentral drum in order to achieve a desired print; and wherein theprocessing and control unit comprises a control section and a processingsection to: command performance of a sequence of stepwise movements of aprinting roller with respect to the central drum or also of an aniloxroller with respect to the printing roller, in order to make contact inprinting at different printing pressures; store for each movement of theprinting roller data acquired regarding its position and the contrastmeasured by the at least one reader; and analyze and elaborate theacquired data and automatically calculate, the position and thereforethe printing pressure of the printing roller with respect to the centraldrum in order to achieve the desired print; the method comprising thesteps of: 1) entering from a control station data of a new job; 2)making the machine run at a speed at which the method for controllingprinting pressures is performed, and measuring the contrast of theprinting material without printing, by means of the at least one reader;3) performing a sequence of stepwise movements of the printing rollerwith respect to the central drum or optionally of an anilox roller withrespect to the printing roller, in order to make contact in printing atdifferent printing pressures, and measuring a contrast of the print bymeans of the at least one reader and during performance of the sequence,storing for each movement of the printing roller data acquired regardingits position and the contrast measured by the at least one reader; 4) atthe end of the sequence of movements and of the corresponding contrastmeasurements, determining, by means of the processing and control unit,analyzing and elaborating the acquired data and automaticallycalculating the position and therefore the printing pressure of theprinting roller with respect to the central drum in order to achieve thedesired print.
 4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the step ofmoving the printing rollers with respect to the central drum isperformed starting from a zero point or kiss point, assumed as the pointat which the printing roller makes contact with the printing material orthe anilox roller makes contact with the printing roller.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 4, wherein the movement of the printing roller withrespect to the central drum and of the anilox roller with respect to theprinting roller is performed with a sequence of movements with presetspacings, defined by elevations with respect to the zero point or kisspoint.
 6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the zero point orkiss point is the point where the printing roller begins to make contactwith said printing material arranged on the central drum or the pointwhere the anilox roller begins to make contact with the printing roller.7. The method of claim 3 wherein the data for a new job comprises dataselected from the group consisting of printing format, type of materialto be printed, printing stations involved, color that is present on eachstation, or combinations thereof.
 8. The system according to claim 1,further comprising a virtual printing plate, for synchronizing themovement of the printing rollers and the reading by the at least onereader, which is connected to the processing and control unit.
 9. Thesystem according to claim 8, wherein the virtual printing plate isconstituted by a motor which rotates so as to be synchronized with theprinting rollers and is provided with an encoder which generates adigital signal at each turn, which thus represents the turn of theprinting rollers.
 10. The system according to claim 9, wherein thevirtual printing plate is synchronous with all the printing rollers ofthe flexographic printing machine.